Support Angelina and Savannahs Journey to Safety & Stability

Hello everyone,

I’m making this GoFundMe today due to, in short, homelessness. For people wondering the full story, here is the full story:

Angelina and I were living with her great-grandparents for a while because it was a convenient situation for us all. We got reduced rent while the money was still helping them, and Angelina helped out a lot around the house and in whatever ways she could. Eventually, as her great-grandparents were getting older, they started to be in and out of the hospital with various health issues. They began thinking of selling the house, and we realized we would soon need to find somewhere else to live. Honestly, we were glad because we were getting to an age where we really wanted to be alone and settle down.

During this time, my dad would often message us, encouraging us to get a place on the property he owned. He had bought the land with the intention that his kids could build homes, live rent-free, and all be around each other. With that in mind, instead of just renting an apartment, we decided to consider building a home on the family property. It seemed like the smarter thing to do since we wouldn’t be throwing away thousands just to live in an apartment. Instead, we’d be able to be around family while also building a home for ourselves.

We needed to go to the area where my family was to start looking into tiny homes that we could rent to own, but we didn’t want to just up and leave our jobs at the same time. So, we made the decision that I would go there first to look for work and explore places that sold tiny homes in the area. Angelina stayed behind, kept her job, and waited for the tiny home to be delivered to the property before she could join me.

While I was there, I started looking for employment opportunities and visited various places that offered tiny homes. While I was on the property, and even before arriving, I made it very clear that I was coming to get a tiny home to build with Angelina, and she would join me as soon as it was delivered. Everyone was well aware of our plans, especially since they had always encouraged us to do this throughout our relationship. However, things took a horrible and sad turn when we actually moved into it.

I had the tiny home delivered, and Angelina then left her job to come to the new area where our soon-to-be home was. She immediately started working when she got there (I had a job lined up for her where I worked). We were planning to work and start building up our home. The tiny homes come as buildings that are built, but the inside had to be completely done by us. We had savings and had already started putting it towards the place, as it needed insulation, walls, etc., to be livable. We did this quickly as it wouldn’t stay cool inside without it.

After a short time of her being here, things took a turn. My dad started acting crazy. I always knew he was against same-sex couples, but he had often expressed that he was okay with it now because he knew he had to accept it for me to be around the family. So, I thought he would act normal, especially since he was the one constantly telling us to start building our place. But shortly after she arrived, things took a sad turn. He started acting abnormal. He’d walk around our place at night eavesdropping, bang on the door in the middle of the night and start arguments with Angelina, And eventually, the worst happened.

One night, when Angelina went outside to take a walk by herself, my dad and brother were both outside our window. She hadn’t noticed them at first and began her walk. Suddenly, she saw two figures outside our place. It was the middle of the night and very dark. The figures turned out to be my dad and brother, and they approached her. She acted completely normal, not scared or anything, as she realized it was just them. But then she noticed how they started acting. My dad began shoving her repeatedly. She asked, "What are you doing?!" but he gave no answer and continued. Realizing she needed to get out of the situation, she tried to run back to the house. As soon as he noticed her trying to leave, he acted quickly and started kicking her in the leg with his boots on. She managed to get away and run into the house, but her leg was badly injured. One of the bruises is shown in the picture above. As she was running back, she also heard him tell my brother to go get his gun. I don't understand why he chose to hurt her; if he had changed his mind about being okay with her being there, he could have just told us so we could make plans to leave. But instead, he went that route, and she was unable to walk for a while and we felt hopeless as we had just made this plan PLUS spent our savings starting on the place as we thought it was going to be a permanent thing. I would NEVER have expected my own parent to do that and especially to the extent that he did.

After this happened, he told us to leave the property. We had already decided we needed to leave as soon as possible because we felt completely scared and unsafe. We had so much fear and anxiety about being on the property that we immediately left but had nowhere else to go, so we were just staying outside. While staying outside in that area, we quickly realized it was an awful place to experience homelessness, as there were many others, but they were usually on drugs. Tons of people would bother us at night. There was nowhere safe to be, and within three days of being outside we were already being harassed and followed. It was so bad to a point that Savannah was nearly kidnapped. Realizing we couldn’t manage being homeless in that area, we left our jobs and returned to where we initially came from as it is a safer spot compared to the other. The areas are hours apart, and without transportation, keeping our jobs was impossible. Feeling hopeless, we turned to TikTok Live for advice and support. People suggested we create a GoFundMe to help.

With no savings left, as they were spent on what we thought would be our new home, the donations from the GoFundMe allowed us to rent a U-Haul and secure a storage unit back in our original area. Despite our efforts, we’ve been living on the streets since. Finding a safe place to rest is nearly impossible, and the conditions are harsh. Although it’s not ideal to seek help online, the dire situation has left us with few options and when in this situation you really realize you will accept any help you can get. We’re actively searching for jobs and submitting applications, knowing that employment will be a crucial step towards stability. However, securing a safe place to live can take months when considering the fact you need months of pay stubs, and even then there is application fees on top of needing first months rent, last months, and a deposit.

Knowing it will take time to get back into a place, our immediate goal is to gather enough funds to purchase a used car. This would provide us with a safer place to sleep and the flexibility to travel to better-paying job opportunities. Even if the car is not in the best condition and cannot be driven, it would still be beneficial as we could park it someplace and sleep in it. Finding a safe and warm place to sleep has been our biggest challenge. We are deeply grateful to everyone who has supported us, whether it be through donating or even just kind words. Your help means the world to us.

Thank you all so much,

Angelina and Savannah